The Demographic Tranistion model is used to idenitfy the economic development stage a country has reached. It ranges from Stage 1, which is small tribes living off the land every day, to Stage 4, which is a completely developed country.

The Demographic Transition Model
The Demographic Transition Model

This graph illustrates the changes in a country as it develops further. As a general trend, lower stages have high birth rates, but this decreases as they progress to higher stages. The death rate starts high, but drops sharply and the stays steady at lower numbers. The total population starts low, but rises quickly until the later stages, where it stablises at high numbers. Stage 5 is not a specific stage, but it entails a countries total population falling, due to birth rates being lower than death rates.